Separating Egg Whites

January 23, 2019

 

I have been separating egg whites for my whole baking career by precariously cracking them on the edge of a bowl, and tossing the white back and forth between the two shell halves. The danger, of course, is that yolk will spill into the egg white and ruin it for beating them stiff. It is particular agony if it happens on the sixth egg.

It didn’t happen to me today, however, as I was creating my Gugelhupf for my daughter’s office staff. I am grateful for that because I owe them a debt of gratitude for their graciousness in late December when I called Laura while her dad and I were being rushed to Emergency in a siren blaring, lights flashing ambulance.

I gave her our destination and they told her to “Go! Right now! To meet your mom.” And she did, which helped to calm the high vibrations of the hour. Many hours, actually, as tests were run to diagnose extreme pains in his lower chest-top belly area.

I used to see my mom crack and separate eggs this same way, but I also saw her use an egg white separator kitchen tool. There are two reasons why I don’t have one of those. The first is I am too lazy to go shop for something if I don’t know exactly where to find it. The second is that I don’t bake often anymore since Tom has to watch his sugar and I have to endlessly watch my weight. It is just more efficient to not have temptation around.

I was in a bit of a hurry to complete the Gugelhupf, for I had made my “to do” list fairly long for this day. That is not wise either, as I don’t do “hurry” well anymore. And I have given up multi-tasking because it is highly overrated and I am not as good as I once was at it anymore.

I need to recall Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God. Where ever I am God is. Whatever I am doing, I can bring God’s presence into it. I do that pretty readily these days as we live a rather quiet mid-70 years of age lifestyle. Things are simpler. I see the packed schedules and tasks of the younger generations in my daughters, nieces and nephews. And I see they are packing a lot of good into that multi-tasking….a lot of God.

Tom and I endured his seven day hospital stay, diagnosed with Acute Pancreatitis, for which he is still being treated. But he is out of pain without medicine. My aspiration for 2019 is to see things more clearly… I don’t ascribe to the current culture of blame game hyped by the media. It has taken me a very long time and a lot of hard lessons to rid myself of the last vestiges of blaming others for anything and I am still not perfect at it. But I have learned the value of self-inventory and “my part” (thank you 4th step inventory of AA) of disturbances in or nearby me and I carry on to making amends where necessary and letting go of blaming myself or others.

The Gugelhupf is baking in the oven and…

 

A little dust of confectioner’s sugar and I am off to Laura’s with this treat.

 

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Gentle Woman Reiki

 

I am a Reiki Master and Practitioner. In December, I will attune my first practitioner in Kentucky to Second Degree Reiki. We are both blessed by this event.

In Gentle Woman Reiki I give and teach a natural healing method you can do for yourself anytime, anywhere.

Reiki is about relaxation and kindness. When I am out of balance and not able to relax or respond to others in kindness, I suffer. I don’t like to suffer.

 

Reiki helps me keep the intention of kindness in my day. It makes the day better for me and all others. A Reiki treatment is an experience of deep relaxation. When I give it to another (am a channel for Universal Life Force), the person may be standing, seated or laying down. I may place my hands lightly on them or above them and open to the Divine Energy that knows where it needs to go and what it needs to do to balance that person.

Balancing may occur on a physical, emotional or chemical basis. I am only a “channel of peace” that allows the all-knowing to bring grace to this person. After a Reiki treatment, the person always feels a deep sense of peace, and many times I must await for the person to awake, they relax so deeply.

Reiki is a tradition founded by Mikayo Usui in Japan in the 1940s. He was a spiritual seeker of both Christian and Buddhist tradition and his quest started with wanting to know how Jesus healed. He aspired to have the same ability. He sought and had an awakening spiritual experience, receiving special symbols that are used in Reiki healing today. On the way down the mountain, he manifested several healings.

He began to teach and heal in the town square. Many came and a medical doctor joined him in this healing and teaching. Eventually, a woman, Mrs. Takata, who came for healing, stayed and trained with him and brought the practice to the United States after the 2nd World War. The lines of Reiki Masters come down through her, who taught and practiced in San Francisco.

May the blessings of the Almighty Father rain down upon you seeding you with all good from above.

 

In his early healings, he found that the beggars and homeless and helpless people did not stay healed unless they put certain qualities at work in their life. Thus he founded the Five Reiki Principles by which I am guided and accountable to remain in the grace of Reiki Master.  These were already in place from my practice of the 12 Step Program by which one stays sober and accountable and responsible for their life.

Just for today…I am grateful.

 

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Staying Open to My Path

Opening to my Path
SoulCollage(R) by Susan Heffron Hajec

 
It is Mother’s Day today. As I am preparing to facilitate a SoulCollage Open Studio this coming Friday on Mystical Mother, I have been gathering various reflective words and images to set the stage for image creation. I know it will be wonderful.

I came across a copy of Max Ehrmann’s “Desiderata”, and it really caused me to pause.  I can still see the small, square illustrated hard copy book of this poem where I placed it on a table top at a focal point in our living room. Above it hung an image of mother with a baby at her breast and the word, love, that I had framed special, for that was my central purpose in life….wife and mother.

It was in my mid-twenties going into my thirties, that consciousness raising and independent thinking were beginning to take root in my life; only one of many waves which kept occurring and I kept stepping up to. There were many layers to explore, choose, get rid of, and suffer the pain and experience the joy and freedom of doing so.

But this book, a copy of Desiderata, traveled on with me for many years. It may still be in my bookcase downstairs. I will look.  It made a deep impression on me in my early years. The impression was one of grandeur and inspiration. The impression was one of , “could this be possible?  The impression was one of a deep sounding chord or fertile seed of Truth.  I didn’t know for sure this was true, and yet there was something in it proclaiming to me that it was a good path to follow.

I pretty much did follow it in the winding labyrinthian paths of my life.  My conclusion is that Max was onto something.

Today, I read the words as a woman seventy-three years of age and quite a bit of life experience. These words contain the Truth and strivings of my daily life and sometimes in viewing the failings, along with the good, these words give cheer to my heart.

I think it is most likely true that I am no less than the trees or the stars; and that as a child of the Universe, I have a right to be here.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

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Improving This Blog with a Title!

Today, as I was posting on my Peace In Our Hearts and Around The World Facebook page, two words in this step jumped out at me as if it were the first time I was seeing them.

“improve our………..conscious contact with God…

STEP ELEVEN. “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out……Prayer and meditation are our principal means of conscious contact with God.” Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Having had 36 years and 13,140 “one-day-at-a-time” days (throwing in a few extras for the Leap Years that occurred over this time), it surprises me that something new pops up in the literature and practice of The Twelve Steps after all this time. But it does and it did today.

In truly countless meetings I attended from the late 1970s into the early years of 2000, I learned how it works, as Chapter 5 states which is often read at the beginning of meetings. “Rarely have we seen a person fail who has truly followed this path.” The path this refers to is the path of the 12 Steps for recovering addicts, no matter the substance of choice. Repetitive reading of this chapter did no harm and hearing it aloud among companion recovering brothers and sisters imbedded the Truth of the miracle mission of founder Bill Wilson in our own personal lives.

True…..we stood at the turning point. We knew this well. We were on the path of the 12 Steps, one day at a time, that would free us from a life impossible to live if addiction ruled our lives.

So, today, many years later, and on a continuing and increasing lifestyle of contemplative prayer and practice, the words that surprise me are: IMPROVING OUR……

Many who sat around the tables had trouble with the word GOD, having to substitute the word Higher Power, for it. Or the masculine pronoun of HE for God. I could get by all of those. They were not barriers to the step for me or the practice of it. What I thought this step promised was ACTUAL conscious contact with God.

My end wish is that I do have that ACTUAL contact, but I will settle for sobriety AND improved conscious contact with God. I have that all the time.  And conscious seems to be the operative word here.

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